Louisiana-Pacific sees lower sales

Louisiana-Pacific saw deeper losses in the first quarter, down to $46.4 million from losses of $37.4 million a year earlier.

Sales fell 11.5 percent to $349.4 million from $394.6 million in the same period last year.

“The continued weakness in the housing sector resulted in LP reporting a loss for the first quarter,” said Rick Frost, CEO of Louisiana-Pacific. “We took significant downtime at most of our mills to balance production to lowered demand.”

Frost said conditions are expected to continue to be difficult over the “next several quarters.” Raw materials costs, especially fuel costs, difficulties in the mortgage market and a high inventory of existing homes all are expected to cut into earnings in the coming months, he said.